Ranger Conclave: Beast Master
The Beast Master archetype embodies a friendship between the civilized races and the beasts of the world. United in focus, beast and ranger work as one to fight the monstrous foes that threaten civilization and the wilderness alike. Emulating the Beast Master archetype means committing yourself to this ideal, working in partnership with an animal as its companion and friend.
Beast Master Magic
You learn an additional spell when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown in the Beast Master Spells table. The spell counts as a ranger spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of ranger spells you know.
| Ranger Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 3th | animal friendship |
| 5th | beast sense |
| 9th | conjure animals |
| 13th | dominate beast |
| 17th | commune with nature |
Primal Companion
You magically summon a primal beast, which draws strength from your bond with nature. The beast is friendly to you and your companions and obeys your commands. Choose its stat block—Beast of the Land, Beast of the Sea, or Beast of the Sky—which uses your proficiency bonus (PB) in several places. You also determine the kind of animal the beast is, choosing a kind appropriate for the stat block. Whatever kind you choose, the beast bears primal markings, indicating its mystical origin.
In combat, the beast acts during your turn. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but the only action it takes is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action. That action can be one in its stat block or some other action. You can also sacrifice one of your attacks when you take the Attack action to command the beast to take the Attack action. If you are incapacitated, the beast can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.
Whenever you gain the Ability Score Improvement class feature, your companion’s abilities also improve. Your companion can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or it can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, your companion can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature unless its description specifies otherwise.
If the beast has died within the last hour, you can use your action to touch it and expend a spell slot of 1st level or higher. The beast returns to life after 1 minute with all its hit points restored.
When you finish a long rest, you can summon a different primal beast. The new beast appears in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of you, and you choose its stat block and appearance. If you already have a beast from this feature, it vanishes when the new beast appears. The beast also vanishes if you die.
Exceptional Training
Beginning at 7th level, the beast’s attacks now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage. Additionally, when the beast takes the Attack action, it can make two attacks.
Empathic Bond
Starting at 11th level, as long as the beast can see and hear you, it has advantage on all saving throws. Additionally, whenever you cast a spell targeting yourself, you can also affect your beast companion with the spell.
Superior Defense
Beginning at 15th level, your companion beast gains the following abilities:
- Whenever an attacker that your companion can see hits it with an attack, it can use its reaction to halve the attack’s damage against it.
- Whenever your companion is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails.
